This salad is my literal dream. I could eat it for dinner every night! When we went to visit my sister recently in Colorado we stopped at a local spot in her area for dinner. I was on a major beer and salad kick and came across a wedge salad that sounded amazing. Ordered it and was obsessed! Knew I needed to make my own version at home.
WEDGE SALAD INGREDIENTS — FEEDS 2 DINNER PORTIONS
Head of iceberg lettuce
8 slices of candied bacon (see ingredients below)
Everything Seasoning (see ingredients below)
Your favorite store bought ranch dressing (I usually use the Whole Foods 365)
10-12 small tomatoes halved (like cherry or sprinkle tomatoes)
2 TBS very thinly sliced (slivered) red onion
1/2 avocado sliced
CANDIED BACON —MIX TOGETHER
1/4 cup brown sugar
8 -10 slices turkey or regular bacon
1/2 TBS crushed red pepper
pinch of cayenne
1/2 TSP pepper
1/2 tsp cinnamon & sugar ( I use McCormick)
EVERYTHING SEASONING —MIX TOGETHER
1/2 TSP dried minced garlic
1/2 TSP dried minced onion
1/2 TSP sesame seeds
1/2 TSP flax seeds
1/4 TSP poppy seeds
1/8 TSP white pepper (optional but recommended for salad)
When you have time (I usually do this at lunchtime quick when the kids are eating ) prepare bacon, let cool and set aside until your ready to build salad. I also always mix up my Everything Seasoning ahead of time too and set aside until ready to build. For Bacon, Preheat oven to 415- 425 (my oven seems to cook at a lower temp so I always set it 10-15 degrees higher when cooking).
On a rimmed baking sheet insert a wire cooling rack, this will allow the bacon to cook and drip off the fat instead of soak and cook in it. Spread bacon mixture on a flat plate, coat/rub the bacon on both sides in the mixture. Bake for about about 15 min to desired crispiness. If you like your food spicy sprinkle another 1/4 TSP of crushed red pepper on the bacon when it’s right out of the oven. I do this because we like a little kick, but if you don’t like your food super spicy you will not need extra crushed red pepper.
BUILD YOUR SALAD
Trim your head of lettuce, cut in wedges. Normally to wedge a head of lettuce you cut it in half and then half again. I like to make this salad into mini wedges. So I core the lettuce, take off the bad leaves and then cut each 1/4 wedge into 3 more wedges. This creates a bunch of mini wedges and makes it easier to eat. I add half the head of lettuce wedges to each salad bowl. Next chop your candied bacon and layer on 4 chopped pieces to the mini wedges in each bowl. Add the halved tomatoes, the slivered red onion, and add 1/4 sliced avocado. Sprinkle on half the everything seasoning mixture to each bowl (using all of it). Lastly, drizzle or dollop (ranch seems to dollop more than drizzle for me) the ranch dressing evenly over your salad.
